As I mentioned, this semester we will be switching it up quite a bit. Monday's we will be focused on Current Event News, Documentary Videos and a variety of movies that will further our understanding of Economics. Tuesdays will be dedicated to project based work. For example, next Tuesday we will begin a project on the Factors of Production. The first two Tuesdays will be dedicated to you doing some research and developing your ideas and the subsequent Tuesdays will be dedicated to presentations by your classmates. After all of the presentations, we will move on to our next project! Block days will be dedicated to learning about the fundamentals of Economics including Micro and Macro Economics! Don't forget your textbooks ... and finally, Fridays are dedicated to Personal Finance. Today we are going to begin that Personal Finance unite with an introduction to the stock market. Needless to say, in order to truly get an idea of how a stock does in the market takes weeks, months or longer. We will take 10 weeks to investigate a few stocks of your choice!!
With that said, welcome to what should be a very fun learning
experience. You are about to be given $6,000.00 to invest in the
stock market! Can you believe it? Through this process you will gain a
sound understanding of the stock market and how to properly invest your money
in order to make a profit; however, remember, investing money in real life is
serious business and while many people have become rich investing, it has also
resulted in many people getting into some serious financial trouble.
While we will be making some big decisions
about investing our money in the coming week, today is all about feeling out
the market and the various companies out there that you could potentially
invest your money in. As part of this project, I would recommend investing in a variety of companies so that you have a diversified
portfolio of stocks! After all, as the saying goes, we do not want to put
all of our eggs in one basket!
As we jump into this project, today will give you an opportunity to reflect on a few questions that relate to the stock market. In addition to responding to the following questions on your blog, I would recommend keeping track of your responses in the GoogleDoc you started Tuesday.
For today's blog, please respond to the following:
- The first thing we need to determine is what a stock is! By purchasing stock, explain what you are in essence buying.
- Now make a list of 10 companies that you would, off the top of your head, be most interested in investing in! After you have compiled your list, take a moment to find the cost, per share, to purchase 1 share for each company. Also, place a + or – next to the cost to show whether the stock is currently up or down in today's trading.
- Check out a reliable stock market site (cnbc.com, yahoo finance, finance.google.com (my favorite) and find a few stocks that have recently been recommended. What did you find? Do you trust the “experts” and the suggestions that they are making? What process will you use to decide how to spend the money you will soon inherit?
- What is an "IPO" and can you name one local company that is currently going through this process? What does an IPO mean for a company and what pros and cons can you brainstorm about this process for a company.
- If you were forced to right now purchase your first stock, which one would you choose? Provide background information about the company and take a moment to analyze its stock performance over the past year. (you can go beyond one year if you choose) Do you think this is a risky stock or no? Why?
- How many shares can you purchase (max $2,000) of your stock and how much money would be remaining?
- Why did you choose this specific company as a good start for your portfolio?
- What choices did you make in choosing this first stock? How did you justify those decisions?
I know this is a lot but thank you for responding to each individual question thoroughly and thoughtfully!
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